


gold dust women

by bitfibber



Category: Adventure Time
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-17
Updated: 2018-03-28
Packaged: 2019-03-05 23:46:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13398825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bitfibber/pseuds/bitfibber
Summary: A complete history of Princess Bonnibel Bubblegum and Marceline the Vampire Queen, from their first meeting to now. Told non-chronologically."These days, Marceline endured her history with Bonnie much like her history with the rest of Ooo and the world it had once been: with the same abstract and casual sense of loss she would regard an unmarked grave."





	1. nine--i wanna touch you but it's too late

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and welcome! This is a canon-compliant, non-chronological multi-chapter fic where I try to write what I think is a decent history of Bubbline. 
> 
> This story is non-chronological, which means that I will be skipping around the timeline as I tell it. However, I will be putting the number that it would be in the series in the title, so you can go back and read the chapters in chronological order if you want. Think of it like Star Wars; even though Episode IV came out first, it's actually the fourth episode of the series and titled as such.
> 
> There's the possibility of some explicit content in the future, but I'll give ample warning.
> 
> This chapter takes place immediately after Sky Witch. Musical inspiration for this chapter is the song Touch by Shura.
> 
> Enjoy!

* * *

_"Rock on ancient queen  
__Follow those who pale i_ _n your shadow_  

_Rulers make bad lovers_  
_You better put your kingdom up for sale"_  

* * *

 

The wind whistled by Princess Bubblegum’s face, making her nose prick with pain from the cold, so she turned and buried it deep in Marceline’s hair until it until it met the soft yellow cloth of Marceline’s striped tank top. Out of the wind, Bonnie exhaled, the warmth of her breath warming her nose and cheeks. After leaving Maja’s mansion, Bonnie felt significantly chillier, as she now wore just an over-sweater, having forgone her usual brassiere that morning and relinquishing her favorite shirt to the witch in exchange for Hambo. Pressed flat against Marceline’s back, Bonnie felt Marceline give a gentle hum at the sudden spot of warmth at her shoulder, but she didn’t slow down.

By now, the tracks on her cheeks left by tears of happiness had dried in the wind and Marceline focused intently on getting Hambo all the way home. The vampire had full control over both their speed and altitude, though Bonnie didn’t mind. Marceline’s body was cool the touch, but was rapidly warming where Bonnibel was pressed close. While the candy elemental gripped securely to Marceline, the vampire herself clutched a worn, pink teddy bear to her own chest, it’s noodle-like arms whipping against Bonnie in the wind.

One of Marceline’s hands came loose from gripping Hambo and curled just behind Bonnie’s knee, tugging her leg securely around one of Marceline’s bony hips. The Princess’s breath caught briefly.

 _‘Losing the shirt was worth it,’_ The monarch thought, _‘I can’t remember the last time we were this close.’_

 _‘Figuratively, of course,’_ Bonnie hastily assuredly herself. She could remember exactly the last time they had been this close physically, but the Princess quickly decommissioned that train of thought.

Much like how Marceline’s windswept hair curled and snapped and tangled around Bonnie now during flight, the two women had long been deeply entwined in what the Princess would describe as a ‘complicated relationship’. Their friendship only freshly rekindled, Bonnibel felt caution was appropriate lest their history rock the foundation of what they had begun to rebuild.

The wind dropped suddenly, and Bonnie lifted herself from her thoughts and her head from Marceline’s mess of hair. Only briefly disorientated, Princess Bubblegum blinked against the darkness, her eyes adjusting to realize that the dark mass in front of Marceline was her quaint little cave house, complete with the glow of the stove light coming from the kitchen. Marceline’s toes made a tiny sound as they touched down onto the porch outside.

“Ready to get down?” Marceline asked, the balls of her feet still skating across the wooden boards.

“Ah, yes,” Bonnie responded, and Marceline’s grip on her thigh loosened as Princess Bubblegum stretched her legs down to solid ground. She stepped away quickly.

“Are we convening here or..?” Bonnie prompted gently, scratching at her elbow.

“Oh, sorry! I should have said something; I just wanted to drop Hambo off safe and sound before taking you back to the castle, if that’s alright?” The vampire asked, her red eyes glancing back at Bonnibel over her bony shoulder. Marceline’s feet lifted back off the ground as she levitated towards her front door with purpose, clutching Hambo with two hands again.

But a fraction of her disappointment must have reached her eyes before she could turn them up to the cave roof, Bonnie knew it, because Marceline slowed to a gentle float and she partially turned towards the candy elemental, her lips tightening into a thin line and her brow barely furrowing.

“I mean, the night is young, though, right?” The vampire stumbled through the invite, “why don’t you come in for awhile and chill?” She followed it up with a toothy grin, showing off her fangs.

The Princess smiled softly and nodded. “I’d like that,” she admitted.

Marceline lead the way inside, with Bonnie following.

Inside, Bonnibel drank in the sights of the house. The last time she spent time with Marceline in her abode, she had still lived in the tree house, a great many years ago. They entered the kitchen, outfitted with some very old, hot-rod red kitchen appliances and a worn checkered floor before moving into the living room. A smile traced across her face as she observed with great delight that the walls were bright pink, matching her own fuchsia outfit. The furniture was all the same as far as she could remember it, including many of the decorations, such as the skull mounted above Marceline’s couch. A larger smile broke onto Bonnie’s face upon seeing the old mix with the new, and she let it spread across her face with abandon.

“Marcy, I love this place!” she exclaimed, raising her hands to the living room before turning to Marceline at the bottom of the ladder, “Makes the tree house look completely ramshackle. Is your bedroom up there?” 

“Pfft, a little pink paint and walls made of a single material is all it takes to impress you, Bonnie,” Marceline teased, jutting her forked tongue at the candy elemental and following it with a wink, “Yeah, come on up for the full tour! I’ve got a sweet hang out spot up here too.” The half-demon promptly zoomed up through the ceiling, fueled by the small tightness of excitement in her chest at the thought of showing off her place to Bonnie.

Marceline had hosted many friends in her cave house since moving back in, but none of them had been Bonnie. She felt a weird mix of pride and a tiny bit of dread at the idea, but ultimately the vampire felt herself springing at the chance to share part of herself with her favorite candy elemental, even if it was just her mediocre interior design.

Bonnibel felt her heart rate jump at the vampire’s wink, so she took a deep breath to settle it before following Marceline up the ladder. To Bonnie’s delight, her bedroom was also painted pink, and she liked how the space was split into the ‘sleeping area’ and ‘chilling area’ with another red corner sectional and a small TV. Small trinkets, posters, wall scrolls, and more mounted demon heads decorated the walls and sloped ceilings of the room, some familiar to the princess while others were not. To her left, the wood floors gave way to the same checkered linoleum in the kitchen where the threshold of the bathroom began. Ahead, the bed sat upon an almost absurdly luxurious 3-headed demon-wolf skin and Bonnie wrestled the impulse to bury her fingers in its soft fur to the back of her brain. Marceline was at the bed, gently laying Hambo back in his rightful place in the center of her bed.

“Gotta pee, BRB!” Marceline exclaimed suddenly, flying into the bathroom and shutting the door with a small slam before Princess Bubblegum could even begin to form the word ‘distasteful’ on her lips.

Taking the dark-haired woman’s absence as an invitation to look around, Bonnie began examine the room in detail. The demon mounts were always interesting, but it didn’t take the princess long to zero in on the desk next to the bed. Large blocks of recording machinery consumed most of the desk space, and walking over to the desk revealed that the remainder of free space was covered in a smattering of open and closed diaries, loose pages of music bars, and hastily scribbled lyrics.

Bonnie splayed her fingers over a couple loose pages sitting on what she presumed to be an open diary, fanning the pages out. She turned her head to catch a few glimpses of lyrics, some of which were familiar. The top page seemed to be the most recent: 

 _Sorry I don't treat you like a goddess,  
_ _Is that what you want me to do?_

The Princess frowned at the memory of that song, but didn’t take it personally. ‘Perhaps she writes down all of her songs, even the ones she sings on the fly?’ A curious notion to be sure, like a form of lyrical recordkeeping.

Only a small portion of the lyrics was visible on the page below, but nonetheless confused Bonnibel: _-did you eat my fries?_

Uninterested in songs about potatoes, she turned her gaze to a very aged piece of paper at the bottom with only the scrawled title visible, smiling when she recognized it: _slow dance._

A sudden _SMACK_ of a book slamming shut and the pain springing into her fingers made Bonnibel yelp and jump into the air. She jerked her fingers out of the book, waggling the stinging digits in the air while hopping from foot to foot. A grey hand with slender fingers pressed firmly on the cover of the book, which was clearly labeled in marker on white athletic tape, _‘MARCELINE’S DIARY #846, DO NOT READ UNDER PENALTY OF DEATH’._

“These are private,” Marceline slowly growled out, her face turned down towards the desk and hooded by shadows cast from her hair. Honestly, Bonnibel hadn’t even heard the toilet flush, but then the vampire had always been exceptionally stealthy. Marceline was very close to Bonnie while crouched protectively over the desk, so the monarch retreated until the back of her knees hit the edge of the bed and she sat with small huff.

Panic abruptly welled up in Princess Bubblegum’s chest. They’d only just agreed to try friendship again after an explosive fight (or, as Marceline might call it, a “discussion”) after the Door Lord Incident, but suddenly Bonnie felt as though she had just ruined it all over again. The candy elemental spent long hours worrying about how best to tread around the unpredictable vampire while trying to fall asleep, but it would be her own nature that would be their downfall again, just as it was in the past. The princess steeled her resolve to fix this; she refused to suffer another end to this connection. Words spilled out of her mouth like an avalanche: “Marcy, I am so sorry, I truly didn’t mean to invade your privacy, I just was just interested in your home and your music and-“

“Chill, Bonnie!” Marceline cut her off harshly, before heaving a breath and massaging her temples, eyes closed, and continuing softly, “It’s alright, you didn’t know, so chill. I’m not mad.”

In truth, Marceline was too exhausted to be angry about such a breach of her privacy. She had spent half the night beating the snot out of a damn crabbit (crowbit?) and just last week, Simon had swung back into her life, trying to make a track to woo Bonnie, no less. So emotionally taxing was his visit that Marceline felt truly drained of the will to strike it up now with Bonnibel. She pushed one of her fangs down into her bottom lip. Marceline also held in careful consideration the precariousness of their friendship as well, and saw how this could be an opportunity to either destroy or strengthen this new thing. Ultimately, she chose neither, having no energy left to guide Bonnie through her own feelings nor truly start a row.

Instead, she flopped down on the bed on the other side of Bonnibel, taking Hambo into her hands, dangling him above. Bonnie watched for a moment, before flopping backwards as well, taking care to avoid laying on the bulk of Marceline’s hair.

“Thank you for helping me get him back, Bonnie,” Marceline said quietly, eyes still focused on Hambo.

“Of course, Marcy! I’m only sorry I didn’t realize how important Hambo was to you earlier,” Bonnie replied sincerely.

Marceline turned and smiled at her, “Apology accepted!” Bonnibel’s mouth went dry suddenly, but she ignored it, smiling back at the half-demon.

They lay in comfortable silence together for a bit, content with each other’s presence for the time being.

Finally, Bonnie broke the silence, “Do you know an ‘Ash’?”

The candy elemental could immediately tell that Marceline did, as her nose instantly wrinkled in disgust at the name. “Ugh, did Maja bring up that weenis while we were there? What did she tell you?”

“Mm,” Bonnibel nodded in affirmation, “I found the bill of sale for Hambo, stating she bought him from an ‘Ash the weenis’.”

Marceline loosed a bark of laughter, rolling to face her on the bed and propping her head on her fist. “Awesome! Well, at least Maja and I can agree on my shitty ex-boyfriend.” She made a ‘pbbbhhht’ noise with her lips and rolled her eyes.

Bubblegum’s eyebrow peaked. She couldn’t ignore the way her chest tightened as Marceline rolled closer to her, either. “Your ex-boyfriend? You never mentioned him back when we were…” Bonnie trailed off, searching for an appropriate word to describe what they had previously been without evoking memories of skin pressed against skin, the feeling of teeth sinking into the flesh just above the hollow of her collarbone, and the vampires soft gasps building in urgency.

 _‘…Fucking?’_ Marceline bit back the half-bitter, half-teasing retort. She reminded herself that she was actively trying to keep this friendship viable, not trying to sink and burn it intentionally. Bonnie already looked uncomfortable enough, struggling to describe what had ended up being a more-than-friends dynamic.

“…Friends?” She supplied dryly, not able to completely remove the edge from her tone.

“…Friends, actually, is exactly what I was going to say,” Bonnie quickly followed, and then it was Marceline’s turn to quirk an eyebrow at Bonnie.

“Okay, sure,” She responded, flopping back over to stare at the ceiling and run her palm through her hair. She decided to move on after witnessing the Princess’ discomfort, “Yeah, Ash is a wizard and he sold Hambo for some dumb fairy wand, so I dumped him. That was a long time ago though, so forgive me for not mentioning such an unpleasant experience.”

The candy elemental frowned, her brow furrowed. “You dated a _wizard_?” She asked, not bothering to hide her disdain. Over the course of her life, the Princess had grown increasingly contemptuous of the school of magic and the ways of wizards and witches. As she found the same results achievable through science, she opined that the practice of ‘magic’ and the Wizard City only served to restrict accessibility to innovation to the elite few. Furthermore, Bonnie had recently begun to strongly suspect that such a system was intentional, a realization that made her blood boil.

“Don’t worry, our time together just confirmed for me all the things you think about wizards. Ash sucks, wizards suck.” Marceline nodded sagely at Hambo, still wiggling him above her head. The half-demon really didn’t want to talk about Ash anymore, so she quickly jumped subjects, “So how did you get Hambo back anyways? Use one of your gadgets to blow Maja to smithereens?”

Bonnie snorted when she heard the dash of hope in Marceline’s question. “Unfortunately no, I did not,” Bonnie replied casually, “The sale was documented, so by law the transaction showed that Maja owned Hambo, regardless of the unethical manner in which Ash procured it in the first place. Forcing Hambo from Maja would have been stealing.”

Marceline shrugged. “Yeah, but, you do like, illegal stuff all the time, right Bon? Who cares when you run a monarchy?”

“Hey, for your information, there is no comprehensive agreement between the royals of Ooo on the privacy and surveillance rights of citizens across all kingdoms,” Princess Bubblegum warned, pointing a finger at the vampire’s nose, “and since I’m not accountable to laws established only in one particular kingdom and not agreed upon internationally, technically I am operating a perfectly legal network.”

“…perfectly legal network!” Marceline mocked in a nasally voice and rolling her eyes, before hissing and snapping at Bonnie’s finger. The candy elemental calmly moved her finger out of reach, ignoring the behavior entirely.

Marceline flipped onto her stomach and propped herself on top of her elbows. Noticing a small loop of thread that had been pulled out of Hambo’s seam as a loop, she bit down gently on her lip and set to gently loosening the other stitches in the seam so that the thread would lie flat again. “Okay then if you didn’t trash her, then what did you do?” She asked without looking up from her work.

“I made a trade.” Bonnibel replied casually, her tone even. A sense of uncertainty roiled in the monarch’s stomach. Unsure if she wanted Marceline to know what she gave up, Bonnie offered no additional details. The exposure of her most prized possession as Marceline’s old shirt during the Door Lord Incident embarrassed her enough already.

But it was too late now, because the mention of a trade shook Marceline’s attention and eyes away from the seam and to Bonnibel’s face. “You _traded_ with that witch??” She exclaimed, caught between feeling betrayed but intrigued. On one hand, Marceline felt upset that Bonnie had done anything other than punch Maja right in her stupid nose, but on the other, there would likely be no Hambo if she had taken that route. Her expression softened to concern for her friend, hoping that she hadn’t given up some kind of important political position for her teddy bear. “What did you trade for him?”

Bonnie carefully studied the ceiling. “I traded that shirt you gave me for Hambo. Luckily I was wearing it under my sweater today,” She answered, her tone matter-of-fact.

Marceline’s eyebrows shot up. “You mean that shirt I gave you forever ago? The one the Door Lord took from you?” Bonnie nodded and Marceline frowned.

“Bonnie-” She started quietly, before stopping. Marceline considered her for a moment. Though she initially set out to say that she shouldn’t have done that, the vampire knew that her heart wasn’t in it. Selfishly, Marceline valued Hambo over Bonnie’s shirt, and she would gladly make that trade again.

“- I’m gonna give you a new shirt.” She finished, taking flight from the bed and drifting over to the closet to rummage through messy drawers.

Princess Bubblegum sat up abruptly. “Oh Marcy, it’s fine, don’t worry about it-“

“Nope!” Marceline interrupted, her face still buried in the drawers, “You don’t get a choice!”

Bonnie deflated a little and moved to sit at the edge of the bed closest to the closet, but she didn’t protest any further. After a few more seconds of digging through her drawers— _just how deep are those drawers?_ Bonnibel wondered—Marceline let loose a muffled, “Ah ha!” in triumph. She twisted back up and out of the drawer and presented a dark shirt in front of the candy elemental’s face. Bonnie leaned back to get a better look.

The t-shirt looked black at first, but upon closer inspection had deep green marbling throughout. Three floating wolf heads locked in a howl surrounded a large full moon on the front of shirt. Cracks ran through the images of the wolves and moon after decades of use distressed the plastic-like adhesion of the motifs.

“Marcy, this looks like it might be from before the Mushroom War! I can’t take this.” The princess first insisted, but finished softly. Nevertheless, she raised her hands and gently thumbed the soft, well-worn cloth. She had no idea how old the shirt was, and perhaps neither did Marceline herself.

“Bonnibel Bubblegum! It’s poor ettiquette to refuse a gift from a foreign sovereign.” Marceline chided her, though her tone and word choices were clearly mocking. A small frown appeared without permission on Bonnie’s lips—she treated courtly matters with the utilitarian seriousness of a well-seasoned dictator.

“I’m kidding, Bonnie.” The queen rolled her red eyes at Bonnie’s expression and, not for the first time, internally bemoaned Bonnie’s young age. Though the half-demon was only around two hundred years older than her candy companion, she had long since found that the futility of stodgy decorum was difficult to grasp for beings of Ooo who had not lived through an apocalypse, and Bonnie was no exception. “But seriously I’m not letting you leave without this shirt.” She finished, pushing the shirt into the princess’ hands.

“If you’re certain…” Bonnie’s tone rang uncertain in Marceline’s pointed ears, but she could already see an excited gleam in her eyes as she curled her fingers into it.

A number of snappy and sarcastic responses sprang to the Vampire Queen’s mind, but when Bonnie’s eyes flicked up to her face, gleaming with an earnest gratefulness rarely seen from the candy elemental, Marceline softened immediately. Instead, she returned Bonnies look with a soft smile and look of her own sincerity, “Of course I’m certain.”

The moment lingered for a beat too long, just enough for a tingle of loss to prick the back of Marceline’s neck. She knew immediately what it was— _flashes of electricity lanced up her neck after lips caressed across her shoulder blade, a sudden tightness gripped her chest when soft hands palmed over her bare ribs_ —the ghosts of memories long gone brushed their sensations across her skin. She broke eye contact but allowed the feelings, now dimmed by time, to wash over her uninhibited. Though Marceline was no stranger to mourning, she had long since stopped grieving what she and Princess Bubblegum could have become and didn’t plan to start back up anytime soon.

These days, Marceline endured her history with Bonnie much like her history with the rest of Ooo and the world it had once been: with the same abstract and casual sense of loss she would regard an unmarked grave.

Restarting this friendship hadn’t been her idea, but abruptly worried about Bonnie perceiving her silence as a sign that Marceline was no longer interested in trying or perhaps just looking to escape her old memories, she snapped her thoughts back to the present and fixed the candy elemental with an impulsive, fang-filled smile. “Well come on!” She exclaimed as she dove for the hem of the fuchsia sweater encircling Bonnie’s waist, “Don’t just sit there, I want to see how it looks!”

Though the whole fumbling mess only lasted a few seconds in reality, time seemed to slow to a crawl for both women.

The elemental jerked backwards in alarm, startled at the hasty invasion of her space, accidentally dragging Marceline with her, backwards and onto the bed. Amidst overwhelming panic, Bonnie distantly remembered once again that she wasn’t wearing anything beneath her sweater after forking her sleeping shirt over to Maja. Marceline hadn’t known that, of course, but from the corner of her eye, Bonnie could see the half-demons eyes widen in comprehension.

Marceline’s lukewarm hands and fingers skated across Bonnie’s warm— _hot_ —skin, starting at the shallow divot just to the inside of her hip bone, sliding over the swell of her hip, skimming just the below the most narrow section of her waist before her momentum lifted her hands from Bonnie’s skin and tangled them into the back of her sweater. Somewhere in the middle of the moment, Marceline realized she made a grave mistake, ‘ _Shit._ ’

Below her, Bonnie’s skin rippled with goosebumps wherever the half-demon’s hands had been. Her initial gasp of surprise hitched at Marceline’s touch and she felt as though her body ignited and began to blaze from the inside-out.

As soon as it had occurred, though, it was over. Like a puppet yanked from the air by its strings, Marceline hastily reversed the course of her flight, jerking herself out of Bonnie’s space and back upright next to the bed. She turned her eyes to Bonnie and a long string of apologies on her tongue.

The monarch was exactly where she had left her, back against the bed and propped up by her elbows. The fuchsia sweater had ridden up around her waist after Marceline’s hands twisted into the back of her sweater, exposing nearly all of the pale pink flesh of her abdomen. Her mouth still parted in shock and face flushed a deep pink, the vampire could see Bonnie’s chest rise and fall with the short breaths she took.

The Princess’ gaze withered her words of remorse before Marceline could begin to utter them. Wide and wild, the green orbs gaped at the vampire with a sort of raw, hungry desire. The floating woman felt the salacious stare arc through her like a bolt of lightning, standing her arm hair on end, curling her toes in her boots, and finally settling just below her belt.

“Uh,” The vampire was graceless and the Princess, clueing into the shock on her face, whipped her gaze and body to the side where she sat up and scrambled to push her sweater down, attempting to regain some sense of composure.

As a child, Marceline once plucked a large rock from the wet shore of a beach and watched the sand fall into the hole it left behind, struck with the understanding that the rock would never fit the same way again. That same feeling washed over Marceline again now and she sensed the foundation of their history shift beneath her, permanent and irreversible, thrusting long-buried emotions and memories back to the surface.

“I-“ Princess Bubblegum stopped short, recognizing that there was no need to reiterate to Marceline that she wore nothing beneath her sweater, “I’m going to use your bathroom.” A feeble assertion, but Bonnibel clung to it like a life preserver as she grabbed the three-wolf-moon shirt and stalked into the bathroom, shutting and locking the door. Once there, she braced herself against the sink vanity and took a few deep breathes, wishing that Marceline had a mirror in her bathroom to fuss over her appearance.

She also desperately wished that the vampire hadn’t seen her so flustered. In the interim years after she had ended their previous arrangement, Bonnibel had felt so sure that her emotions for Marceline beyond friendship had decayed. Unfortunately, their run-in with the Door Lord and the way her heart raced during Marceline’s song proved otherwise. The candy elemental planned on keeping her extraneous feelings hidden until perhaps they died from lack of air, but now her burning cheeks and a sinking panic in her stomach told her she’d shown her hand.

After a few moments to collect herself and prepare some choice phrases and a string of apologies, the Princess straightened and reached for the door handle.

“Yo Peebs! Does it really take that long to try on a shirt?” Marceline called from the room on the other side of the door. Unlike Bonnie, Marceline decided that the best course of action was to pretend that the incident had never occurred in the first place. Reclined amongst the pillows on the red sectional in the corner, the half-demon nervously bit at one of her thumbnails and hoped that Bonnibel would understand the implication.

Princess Bubblegum froze just short of the handle, momentarily confused before her arm and shoulders dropped in understanding and relief. If Marceline was willing to give her the chance to bury her more carnal passions, Bonnie welcomed it with open arms. She quickly slipped her sweater over her head and replaced it with her new t-shirt before stepping outside the bathroom.

Marceline gave a start at the sudden opening of the bathroom door, but rose from the sectional and broke into a large, toothy grin at the sight of the Princess. Though perhaps slightly too large for her frame, Marceline could tell from Bonnie’s beaming face that it didn’t matter. “Looks rad! You like it?” She asked.

Bonnie looked down at the shirt and smoothed it over her hips. “Yes! It will make an excellent new Most Prized Possession!” Then, more sincerely, “Thank you so much, Marcy.” When she looked up, a faint pink blush colored Marceline’s cheeks.

Aware of her fluster, Marceline scratched the back of her head and turned to the side. “It was nothing, really. Thank _you_ for helping me get Hambo back.” She floated over to the TV, eager to hide her face behind the cabinet. “So do you want to like, watch a movie or something? I think I’ve got some bomb-“ An unbidden yawn interrupted her then, forcing her to stop short.

Bonnie donned her sweater over her new shirt. “Actually, you seem fairly exhausted and I’d guess that it’s getting close to dawn.” Her tone betrayed some of her disappointment, “I should probably get back to the palace—we left a pile of sleepers in the foyer and I assume they’re still there.” The princess felt fatigue pull at her as well, but she knew she’d have no time to indulge in naps upon arriving home.

The vampire couldn’t argue with that logic. She halfheartedly dropped her _Red Sonja_ VHS back on the stack. “You’re right, I’ll fly you home-“

“I think that’s a bad idea. It’s too close to dawn and you should rest, I can just call the Morrow.” Bonnie hastily assured the pale woman. Her true reasons for calling her trusty steed went unspoken, but something about the way that Marceline ran her front teeth over her bottom lip made Bonnibel feel like the vampire heard them nonetheless: ‘ _I don’t think I’ll be able to endure it if we touch again today.’_

“Mm.” Marceline hummed and nodded in concession, “I’ll walk you out.”

She floated down the hole and in the floor and Bonnie followed on the ladder, arriving at the bottom to find the taller girl hefting her backpack up for her, shoulder straps facing out. Bonnie turned and slipped it on before stepping towards the door with a forced smile. A small sound indicated that Marceline touched down close by.

She hooked her thumbs on the bottom of the shoulder straps and looked up from the floor. “Thanks again for the shirt, Marcy.” Her voice was soft.

The soft, sincere look on Marceline’s face suddenly inundated Bonnie with the impulse to reach out to her, to caress her from jawline down to collarbone as she had done years ago; she was awash in the urge to touch the other woman, to bury her face in her neckline and whisper, ‘ _please... please, I want to stay here with you’_. But things had changed, and their history weighed heavily between them, staying her hands. She swallowed instinctively, even though she couldn’t actually taste the bitterness of loss she felt.

“I’ll be around, so text me and we’ll hang out again yeah?” The queen responded, opening the door, “This was fun, Bon.”

Princess Bubblegum nodded as she stepped out the door, “Bye, Marcy.”

“See ya, nerd!” When the door shut, Marceline let loose a breath she didn’t know she had been holding and pressed her back to the door, slowly sliding down until she sat on the floor. She started to reflect on the events of Bonnie’s visit as she distantly heard the Princess call for her loyal bird—‘ _No, not right now_ ,’ She thought firmly, ‘ _Later_.’

The vampire floated off the ground and up to her room to rest. Bleary-eyed against the rising dawn, Princess Bubblegum planned to do the same. _‘Surely Pep-but can handle one day in charge while I rest.’_

When they both finally slept, they dreamt of one another. Hovering somewhere between dreams and nightmares, their past memories mixed with the events of the night and haunted the both of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you don't know what a Three-Wolf-Moon shirt is, then you're missing out.
> 
> Oh my gosh this was supposed to be less than half the length it is.
> 
> Let me know your thoughts! This is the first creative writing piece I have done in many years. I have been doing exclusively science writing in the interim and I am worried it has destroyed my writing abilities, ha!
> 
> Lastly, if you have questions about old discontinued stories of mine, check my profile or PM me.


	2. two--have you no idea that you're in deep?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What exactly happened down in the mines all those years ago when Bonnibel tagged a wall?
> 
> "Marceline was rendered utterly speechless. This was a Bonnibel that Marceline had never before encountered, brash and gleeful with a touch that was both coy and calculating. Her green eyes flashed with pride and jubilance but also something deeper: a dark streak of dominance, unrelenting and unbridled."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter takes place in the distant past, shows events referenced in Varmints.
> 
> Big shoutout/thanks to my beta silverr, who worked with me on this chapter!

“Marcy?” The call echoed down the stone walls of the old railcart tunnel. Princess Bubblegum stood perfectly still, ears focused towards the darkness outside the small bubble of light her lantern cast, but no reply came. Bonnibel snorted and moved her hand to the hip of her purple jeans. “C’mon, Marceline, this isn’t funny or clever in the slightest."

The tunnel remained silent.

After a beat or two, Bonnibel frowned and moved her hand towards the front pocket of her pink sweatshirt, where she kept the small laser knife she brought.

“ _Boo_ ,” Marceline whispered straight into the shell of Bonnibel’s left ear.

The princess shrieked and darted to the right, whipping the laser knife out of her pocket and brandishing it at the open air.

A cackle rippled down the tunnel and the Vampire Queen herself materialized in front of the knife, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes. “Marcy!” Bonnibel exclaimed, “I almost knifed you thinking that something actually dangerous tripped the alarms!”

“Oh man, Bonnie!” Marceline said between laughs, “You should’ve seen your face! It was absolute gold!”

Marceline drifted closer to the lantern, revealing a red and black striped sweater and a simple pair of jeans with holes in the knees as well as a new haircut. She had shaved the left side, and now she moved to push her mass of black hair over to the right.

Princess Bubblegum groaned and put away the knife, rolling her eyes at Marceline. “Yeah, very funny, Marceline.” Her bitter tone and the way the line of her mouth twisted told Marceline that the princess was anything but amused.

Marceline stopped giggling and gently bumped Bonnibel’s shoulder with her fist. “Hey, sorry, I thought it would be a funny prank.”

Marceline was genuine, but Bonnie still seemed annoyed, staring down at the ground. In truth, Marceline occasionally forgot that Bonnibel was still getting used to their dynamic; her interactions with her subjects were predictably obedient. And although Marceline would hold herself to no such standard, she did actively soften the blow for Bonnibel as she steadily learned what an actual friendship was all about.

Bonnie sighed and looked up at Marceline. “It’s fine. I just almost sliced you up,” She quirked an eyebrow at the vampire. “You do know that you could call me when you want to hang out, right?” She gestured to the minecart laying wheels up off the rails, a solid dent in the side.

Marceline smirked, then shrugged. Kicking these old mine carts off the rails created a signal that Bonnibel wound  up checking out personally, and therefore it had become a very reliable way to get Bubblegum to hang out with her. “I don’t see you complaining about cutting your trade meeting short.”

The princess’ face broke into a grin. “Ha! Funny how the mine carts always fall over   whenever I meet with the Cheese Kingdom diplomats!” Bonnibel’s green eyes met Marceline’s with a knowing glint.

Marceline laced her fingers behind her head and crossed her legs in the air, floating away towards a pile of rubble. “What can I say? Ever since you told me they made that weird comment about how good at negotiating you are ‘ _for a girl’_ , I just figured their time is the best to waste. Besides, I have a way better way to spend your time!”

Bonnie initially looked surprised that Marceline remembered the comment, but then her face settled into a frown at the reminder. “The Cheese Kingdom has only been getting more annoying since then,” she replied absently, “I’ve been considering destabilizing the nation-state entirely, actually, and splitting the territory between myself and the Fire Kingdom-”

Marceline pulled a bag from behind the small pile of rubble and rock candy crystals, the contents clanking, drawing the princess’ attention. “Oh no,” Bonnibel warned, though Marceline could hear amusement as well, “You’re not doing that again.”

Marceline flicked her hair over her shoulder and gave Bonnie a sly look as she reached into the bag. She pulled out a can of white spray paint. “Oh yeah? You gonna come over here and stop me, Bonbon?” she challenged. She began shaking the can like a rattle, flicking her forked tongue at Bonnie to complete her impression of a snake.

Princess Bubblegum rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, but made no move to stop her, so Marceline turned and sprayed a large bat onto the wall. “I should really get back,” Bonnie sighed behind her. “I have a lot of paperwork to do before tomorrow morning.”

Marceline turned to look at her, looking genuinely disappointed. “Aww, c’mon, Bon, hang out with me! Tag a few walls! You know you want to!” At that, it seemed to her that Bonnie was wavering, so she cleverly reframed the situation to appeal to the politician in front of her: “Think of it as a meeting between two heads of state.”

Bonnie giggled, but relented. “Alright, I’ll stay,” she said with a smile.

The smile filled Marceline with warmth at the knowledge that she was right: Bonnie _did_ want to be down here, joking around with her rather than doing paperwork until dawn.

When she turned back to her painting, Bonnie’s voice grew firm, “But I’m _not_ vandalizing my own property.”

Marceline hummed as she finished up the fangs on a bat, unperturbed by Bonnie's assertion. “Mm, we’ll see about that.” Her tone was breezy and casual, but cryptic. She floated backwards and surveyed the walls, now covered in bats. “I’m out of room here, let’s move farther down.”

The vampire slung the bag of spray paint over her shoulder and began floating down the tunnel without waiting to see if Bonnibel would follow her. However, the bobbing of her long shadow as Bonnie scooped up the lantern resting on one of the rails told her that Bonnie was close behind. Marceline slowed and drifted closer to the ground until they moved abreast.

Bonnibel frowned at the rock candy jutting from the walls.  Mining operations had ceased only a decade ago, but if this many crystals had already broken through, she needed to start worrying about the structural integrity of the tunnel and the possible effects of sinkholes on surface structures—

A thin grey hand gently gripped her shoulder, jolting her from her thoughts and stopping their progress. She looked to her left and found Marceline floating close, staring ahead at the walls of the tunnel.

“Wow, look at how beautiful it is, Bon,” she whispered.

Princess Bubblegum blinked, realizing Marceline was right: it was breathtaking. Ahead of them, the rock candy crystals had formed  a natural arch of transparent pink and purple crystals. The light from the lantern hit the facets and bent through them, casting blotches and swirls of pink and purple light onto the dark grey stones forming the curved walls of the tunnel.

More startling to Bonnibel, however, was how they had both seen such different things: where Bonnibel saw another problem to add to her list, Marceline saw beauty.

Smiling, Bonnibel turned to Marceline to share this  realization, but suddenly found her words lost. The colored light painted not only the walls, but washed across Marceline’s skin as well, the whole scene reflected in her shining red eyes.

The princess breathed out unsteadily and her stomach dropped. “Yeah,” she agreed, her voice faint. “It’s beautiful.”  She was strangely mesmerized, caught up in a sensation she didn’t quite recognize.

The moment stretched on until Marceline broke the stillness, squeezing Bonnibel’s shoulder briefly and shaking Bonnie from her thoughts before floating onwards. “C’mon, friend, we should find more blank walls on the other side.”

Suddenly freed, the princess raised a brow at Marceline’s back. “’Friend’?” She teased, “I thought this was an informal diplomatic meeting between Heads of States.”

Marceline turned and shrugged, floating backwards through the arch.  “I just said that so you’d feel less guilty about chilling with me.” Marceline’s honesty clashed with her nonchalance. “Plus I know you’ve got like, complicated feelings and stuff about friendship.”

The vampire smirked when Bonnibel looked startled. She wondered when Bonnie would finally stop considering herself some kind of emotional enigma and start remembering that even if she was some kind of science genius, her capacity for empathy was practically zero. Though Bonnibel put up a front of stoicism and formality, Marceline had started to see through it with greater ease every time they spent time together.

At first, Bubblegum looked like she was about to protest Marceline’s observation, but Marceline was surprised when Bonnie’s face softened.  “Well, friendship is hard,” she admitted as Marceline turned to paint a giant angry face on the wall. “My last friendship ended kind of…strangely.”

Flashing an inquisitive look in her direction, Marceline moved to another part of the wall and began painting her name in menacing, dripping letters. “Oh? Give me the deets, Bon. When was this and what happened?”

Behind her, she could hear Bonnie nudging some rocks along the tracks with her feet. “It was long before we met, back when there were still rivers of toxic waste in the Candy Kingdom. The castle roof wasn’t even built. The whole area around here was carved up by a bunch of small gangs fighting over territory at the time.”

At this, Marceline gave the princess a sharp, knowing look. Since there were no gangs now, Marceline strongly suspected Bonnibel had had a hand in the disappearance of these ‘gangs’.

Apparently, Bonnie hadn’t noticed her look and continued on: “Then suddenly this girl named Shoko shows up, injured. I brought her in and let her stay with me while the castle got built. I showed her my secret plans, she talked to me about where she came from, she helped me construct the Gumball Guardians, I built her a mechanical arm…” Here, Bonnibel looked hesitant, her arms folding, “She was really smart and helpful and she really felt less like one of my candy people and more like an equal. It was… nice.”

Marceline had stopped painting and turned to listen. When Princess Bubblegum paused, she gently prompted her, “…But?”

The princess sighed. “But I guess she was interested in something other than friendship. It turned out she was pretending to be my friend to steal one of my power gems."

The corner of Marceline’s mouth tugged downwards, and she asked softly, “So one day she just tried to steal from you? After helping for so long?”

At this, Bonnie crossed her arms and turned away from her. “She succeeded!” she exclaimed quietly, “She stole one of my power gems and ran off with it. Unfortunately for her, during her escape she fell into a part of the river that was still radioactive.”

Marceline grimaced. “Yeesh! That’s a gnarly way to go.”

“I know,” the Princess nodded solemnly, “I did try to save her, but I had only just booted up the first generation of the Gumball Guardians. They weren’t radioactive resistant yet.”

Reaching out, Marceline laid her hand on Bonnie’s shoulder for the second time that night, shaking the princess from her thoughts and into meeting Marceline’s gaze. “Friends come and go for people like us, Bon. Back when the humans were still around, I lost so many friends that I’ve forgotten most of their names.” Surprising even herself, Marceline finished, “That doesn’t mean it’s not worth it though.”

The princess, eyes wide, now realized that she had never given much thought to the implications of Marceline’s immortality. In fact, Bonnie knew practically nothing about her friend’s past; she knew that vampires were _turned_ , not born, so at one point Marceline must have been human. _I wonder if she knew her family. Did she wish she could follow them?_ Spurred by the honesty of the moment, Bonnibel resolved to breach the subject. “Marcy, do you ever wish you weren’t a vampire?” She asked quietly, absently.

For the span of a heartbeat, the vampire considered being honest. Bonnie’s gaze was raw and honest, but also fragile. In truth, Marceline belonged not to Ooo, but the world before. Before she watched her human friends age and die, she lost her school, her home, and her mother. She found the feeling of loss so familiar, it had become comfortable. Over the centuries of her life she bore the weight of that loss alone, and there was no way the delicate trust forged between them could hold it. There was so much to say to that question— _I never wanted this, I never consented, no one would choose this, it’s a cruel irony to become exactly what you hate_ —and Marceline didn’t know where to start.

Marceline slipped her hand from Princess Bubblegum’s shoulder and palmed her hair, rolling her eyes and flashing a toothy grin. “Pfft, heck no!” she cheerfully denied, floating away from the monarch,. “Look at all cool stuff I’d have missed! Plus I’ve got a host of badass powers, yo. Being the Vampire Queen makes me the toughest ruler in all of Ooo.”

Bonnibel’s eyes shone with hurt and disappointment, but Marceline turned away from her gaze, unable to bring herself to mollify the princess’ feelings any further. Guilt welled up in her chest, but Marcy beat it back fiercely. _She’s not entitled to my history,_ she reminded herself. She started moving again, fishing for a new can of spray paint in her bag.

Behind her, she could hear Bonnie following briskly. “Toughest? Mmm, I’m not so sure. Vampires have tons of well-known weaknesses, and your kingdom consists of a tree house with holes in the walls,” Princess Bubblegum said matter-of-factly. “Hardly suitable for defense purposes.”

Marceline didn’t turn from the snarling wolf she was painting. “I _am_ my own defense, Bonnibel. I am a kingdom of _one_. Attacking the citizen is the same as attacking the military.”

“Exactly! However, your ‘Kingdom of One’ and all the other kingdoms of Ooo are categorically distinct and therefore incomparable.” Bonnibel clearly enjoyed this line of thought immensely, but Marceline was growing bored, until she heard Bonnie’s next assertion: “Therefore, I think it’s clear that I’m the ‘toughest monarch’ in all of Ooo.”

Like a fish for a worm, Marceline snapped up the bait, Bonnibel’s previous prying now forgotten. She whipped around, a giant grin on her face as she laughed at Bonnibel. “Girl, you are made out of _bubblegum_!” She snickered, and then leaned close to the princess’ face, her voice growing low and suggestive. “I could chew you up and spit you out.”

Bonnie was so caught up in challenging Marceline’s sly, half-lidded stare that she failed to notice that Marcy’s index finger, wet with white paint, rising up between them until it was too late. Quick as a rabbit, Marceline smeared a dot of white paint onto her nose.

Princess Bubblegum let loose a strangled squawk and Marceline darted up and away, laughing heartily as Bonnibel wiped frantically before the paint could begin drying. Now with white paint streaked onto the back of her hands the princess glared up at Marceline, who cackled and fled further down the tunnel.

Wiping her eye as  trailed off, Marceline heard the echo of her laugh drop off below her and, upon opening her eyes, realized that she was no longer floating above the floor. Below her, the earth had split open into a great chasm, deep and dark. The tunnel bricks stopped on either side at the walls, but the tracks ended in gnarled metal curls over a  gap where the bridge supports had been decimated by falling rocks from above. Despite several forays down into the mines over the last few months, they had never managed to wander quite this far in this direction.

“Whoa.” Marceline’s voice echoed down the chasm and disappeared, swallowed by the darkness. She turned and called back to her friend, “Hey Bon! Take a look, the bridge is out.”

Bonnibel emerged from the tunnel and held her chin as she examined the broken minecart bridge and tracks. “I had a feeling that this bridge design wouldn’t last very long. At least it didn’t break while I was using it.”

Marceline floated down towards her, offering her a hand. “Here, Princess, I’ll carry you across so you don’t have to risk your _delicate_ constitution.” She was still teasing the princess, and had no intention to stop anytime soon.

The vampire’s warm gaze was met with a steely look of determination and her smug grin faltered. "Delicate!" Bonnibel ignored her hand and instead folded her arms. “Will you admit that I’m tough if I can jump this gap?” she asked defiantly.

Marcy let loose a short bark of laughter. “Are you serious, Bonnie?” she asked, half-laughing and half-perplexed.

Princess Bubblegum raised her eyebrows in response.

Marceline’s expression changed from mirthful to uncertain and then settled on resolute. “Alright, yeah.” She drifted to the other side and touched her feet down on the ground, folding her arms. “Let’s see what you’ve got, Princess. I bet you chicken out.”

If Bonnie felt she had something to prove, then Marceline wouldn’t stand in her way. Besides, Marceline was more than intrigued by the princess’ sudden spontaneity. In all their years of time spent together, Marceline had never seen Bubblegum commit to something so frivolous, so it seemed more entertaining to let the show go on. From across the gap, Bonnie looked plenty confident as she moved to examine the gap. She then turned away from Marceline and took several large steps. _Is she counting her steps to the edge?_ Marcy wondered, _What a nerd._

When Bonnibel turned back around, Marceline’s smug expression vanished. Bonnie’s face had gone very pale and Marceline could see the white rimming her wide green eyes, even from across the span. She was terrified and Marceline felt immensely stupid for goading her into something so silly, yet so dangerous for someone without the power of flight.

“Uh-“ Marceline started to call out, but the princess began sprinting at the gap, cutting off her apology. 

With only a few inches of dirt on the edge remaining in front of her toe, Bonnibel launched herself off her left leg and into the open air. Her arms pinwheeled a bit as she sailed through the air, but her right leg stretched out for the firm ground waiting for her on the other side. Marceline held her breath and clenched her teeth, panicking in her own right.

Bonnibel’s foot touched down with a several inches of dirt to spare behind her heel. Then, as her left leg and the rest of her body weight moved forward, pushing down, the dirt suddenly gave way. Princess Bubblegum squawked in fear as her right leg sank into the gap, but the earth beneath her left leg held firm. Her hands flailed outwards, looking for something to grasp in order to pull her leg up and out of the gap before she sank backwards with it.

In answer, Marceline’s hands wrapped around her forearm, fingers digging in almost painfully. Marceline, eyes wide in alarm, stood just in front of the princess with lanky legs bent, black leather boots braced against the rail ties for leverage and wild black hair flying around her.

“I got you!” she cried out, feeling Bonnie’s fingers tighten around her own forearm. She pushed off the rail ties, pulling Bonnie up and backwards and onto both her feet, stumbling over more rail ties and the tracks until they both stood on solid ground.

“Shit, Bonnie, I am so sorry!”

They stood close to one another, chests heaving; Marceline still gripped her forearms as a panicked apology fell from her mouth. “I shouldn’t have been such a dingus about it, it was totally uncool and there was—“ Marceline trailed off when Bonnie’s poorly hidden giggles turned into a full laugh. Marceline’s mouth hung open, perplexed at Bonnie’s reaction.

“That was exhilarating!” she wheezed out, catching her breath. Bonnibel freed her right arm from the vampire’s grip and wiped her forehead, her gaze smug and triumphant. “You should see your face right now. Were you really that worried about me, Marcy?” She raised her hand, the back still smeared with now dry white paint, and placed a finger under Marceline’s chin, pushing gently upwards until her jaw clicked shut. “I’m _touched_ ,” she drawled, voice low and teasing.

Marceline was rendered utterly speechless. This was a Bonnibel that Marceline had never before encountered, brash and gleeful with a touch that was both coy and calculating. Her green eyes flashed with pride and jubilance but also something deeper: a dark streak of dominance, unrelenting and unbridled.  It sent goosebumps rippling across the back of her neck and, when Bonnie’s fingertip met the bottom of her chin, she felt the blood rise to her cheeks as her heart thrummed in her ears. Though the two had spent time together in the past freely and willingly, they had always done so superficially, without a mutual display of vulnerability until tonight. Now, having expected to stumble into a deeper friendship some time during the night, Marceline was struck with the realization that it was no longer a friendship she desired.

Clearing her throat, Marceline broke eye contact, released her grip on Bonnie’s other forearm, and floated up and backwards before the princess could read her face. She chose to play it cool, her voice nonchalant, “You’ve been thinking too hard, Princess,” she paused, folding her arms before acknowledging, “though I’ll admit you’re tough.”

Marceline hoped desperately that her admission would distract Bonnibel from the curiosity that she saw brewing in her green eyes. Her breathing shallow, Marceline felt her mouth go dry at the prospect of trying to explain to Bonnie exactly what she was feeling when she had only just figured it out for herself. However, Marceline knew that she was being naive; not once had she managed to beguile Bonnibel’s attention away from the subject at hand.

“What I’m thinking is that perhaps you care a lot more about my wellbeing than you’ve originally let on,” Bonnibel retorted, her voice ringing steady and clinical like usual and Marceline’s heart leapt into her throat, panic welling in her chest.

Facing away from the princess and shielded by a curtain of dark hair, Marceline grappled with a new fear: if Bonnie didn’t need an explanation to strike so close to the truth, perhaps she was just playing with Marceline’s feelings. Now, the vampire was on the defense and the whole situation seemed perverse. Marceline couldn’t figure out which scared her more: Bonnibel’s rejection or her idea of reciprocation.

But then, Marceline was also a master of deflection, so she steadied her breathing and didn’t deign to reply with words. Instead, she scoffed in response, then pivoted coolly, “C’mon, I want to see what’s ahead.”

For her part, Princess Bubblegum found Marceline’s evasiveness not disappointing, but invigorating. Her green eyes narrowed slightly and half her mouth quirked upwards in a mischievous smirk as she moved forward to follow Marceline down the tunnel. Bonnibel recognized the deep thrum of excitement and pleasure in her chest: it was the same feeling she got when she navigated through a particularly tricky discussion on foreign trade with an experienced dignitary and came out on top. What was new, however, was the strange knot of nervous energy stuck in the back of her throat. She felt compelled to push back at Marceline, to dig her fingers deep into whatever had the vampire’s ears red and then pull it back up to the surface. It was a wildly uncharacteristic impulse for Bonnie to have in an interpersonal setting, one that seemed outside her control. Regardless, Princess Bubblegum relished the taste of a chase and resolved to pursue this dynamic with Marceline, even if she didn’t quite know what result she wanted at the end of the night. But an important part of a chase was patience, so rather than badger the vampire further, Bonnibel quietly walked after her.

As they moved down the tunnel, the tension dissipated into a comfortable silence and Marceline gave up on painting anything in particular, content to hold a can out to the wall as they advanced, occasionally bobbing her arm up and down to break the steady white line with a series of smooth waves. She hummed absently, a potential melody for some lyrics she had scribbled down last night.

“Are you going to have a show sometime soon? I’d like to hear you perform sometime,” Bonnibel asked, leaving the compliment implied, _I like the way you sound._

Marceline drew out a hummed note and turned it into a thoughtful _‘hmm’_ at the beginning of her response. “If you tag a wall, I’ll invite you to my next show.”

Ahead, the tunnel wall had partially collapsed, exposing an old storage area off the side of the tracks. Bonnibel moved ahead a little bit, making a beeline for the small opening while Marceline followed with a similar curiosity. Inside, the dirt walls had long since lost their pack and slid into the room in great piles, leeching away at the floor space. Rock candy crystals protruded from the piles and the ceiling, but one wall of stacked stone still stood.

In the middle of the room, Bonnibel stood looking at Marceline over her shoulder with a gaze that sent a shiver down her spine, lording over both the ruined infrastructure and Marceline’s own ruined nerves when she spotted the blush rising on the queen’s cheeks.

“Tell you what,” the princess responded as she turned slowly towards Marceline, a sly tone to her voice, “I’ll tag a wall if you admit you care about me.”

Heat flared up in Marceline’s chest all over again and her breathing quickened as she ducked into the room. It must have been the green gaze, because Marcy’s tongue betrayed her when their eyes locked. “Okay,” she sounded breathless, “Deal.”

The princess moved close to her then, fumbling to reach into the plastic bag of cans still looped over Marceline’s forearm. “Here–“ Marceline tried to assist, but ultimately just took the bag off her arm and handed it over. When Bonnibel retreated and dropped the bag after grabbing a can, Marceline took a shaky breath, suddenly feeling as though she had room to breathe again.

The vampire watched as Princess Bubblegum began to tag the wall, her script taking form in characteristically perfect and even letters, capped by points and composed of wide loops. Marceline cracked a small smile when her own name took shape, wondering how she could have expected anything else from Bonnie. But there were small flourishes as well, Marceline observed–an extra loop on the ‘M’ of Marceline’s name, an aggressive slant to her signature–hints of the headstrong and audacious conqueror who launched herself over an abyss earlier, poking through a well-groomed façade.

When Bonnibel moved fluidly through the final half of the curls that made up her surname, she stepped back to admire her handiwork:

_‘Marceline_

_made me write_

_this. –Bonnibel Bubblegum’_

She nodded once, clearly satisfied with her work, and then turned back to the waiting vampire, dropping the empty can on the way. She stopped just short of Marceline and raised her eyebrows. “Your turn,” she whispered.

Marceline licked her bottom lip and swallowed, but her mouth felt dry under Bonnie’s expectant gaze. She was thankful that she was floating, for her shaky legs wouldn't have held her up if she was standing on the ground. Clearing her throat, she raised her eyes from the ground to meet Bonnie’s own. She tried not to make it sound like a confession, but her voice was hoarse and laced with trembling. “Uh, yeah,” she said as her left shoulder jerked in a half shrug, “I care about you, Bonnie.”

Bonnibel smirked and stepped closer, her face tilted up towards Marceline’s own. Raising her hand, Marceline felt Bonnie’s last three fingers trace along her jawbone, her index finger and thumb hovering over Marcy’s cheek. Transfixed, Marceline distantly realized that Bonnibel was flirting with her. _I’m in over my head,_ she thought, but she was ultimately helpless under Bonnie’s touch. She could only stand there, their faces close enough to feel Bonnie’s breath on her lips as the princess quietly boasted, “I know.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you’ve never Han Solo’d someone before, you should do it as soon as possible. I highly recommend it. It's immensely satisfying.
> 
> Fun facts about this chapter: 
> 
> \- In the show, Marceline shows signs of a functional cardiovascular system, such as blushing. However, nearly every fic I read has her without a heartbeat (likely because it’s an obvious implication of the undead). I find it very difficult to reconcile ‘blushing’ without ‘heartbeat’, so I’m arguing that Marceline canonically has a beating heart. 
> 
> \- The state department has both “formal diplomacy” and “informal diplomacy” officially defined on their website.


End file.
